Blue Ridge Parkway

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All-American Road, running for 469 miles through 29 Virginia and North Carolina counties, mostly along the Blue Ridge, a major mountain chain that is part of the Appalachian Mountains. The Parkway was built to connect Shenandoah National Park to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The parkway, while not a National Park, has been the most visited unit of the National Park System every year since 1946. Land on either side of the road is owned and maintained by the National Park Service